ROUND 3 PREVIEW V SUBIACO

WEST Perth hosts Subiaco on Saturday at HBF Arena on Ladies Day with the Falcons' women's team in action before hand up against East Perth to open the WAWFL season.

It will be a historic occasion for the West Perth Football Club with the women's team playing East Perth from 12.10pm at HBF Arena.

That will be followed by the league clash between West Perth and Subiaco. The colts are playing on Friday night at 6.30pm while the reserves will play on Saturday following the league match at 5pm.

West Perth had the opening round bye before doing well to beat East Perth by 21 points last Sunday at HBF Arena. It was a tight affair all afternoon before the Falcons kicked the opening three goals of the last quarter to set up a match-winning advantage.

Subiaco is coming off playing in the previous three WAFL grand finals, but made a slow start to the season losing to South Fremantle by 39 points at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

But the Lions bounced back with a solid 23-point win over Perth at Leederville Oval last week and will be looking to build on that performance now against West Perth on Saturday at HBF Arena.

Looking back to last year, Subiaco beat West Perth in Round 3 by 44 points at HBF Arena and in Round 20 at Kingsway Reserve by 52. 

West Perth did get one back in between winning in Round 10 by 26 points at Leederville Oval.

Falcons coach Bill Monaghan is looking forward to yet another battle with Subiaco.

"The rivalry is pretty strong between us and Subi, and I think it's largely because our zones border each other and a lot of the guys go to school together, and really grow up together," Monaghan said.

"Lots of their players might live in our area but play at Subi clubs or go to schools in Subi's zone and vice versa. We have a lot of strong rivalries with a number of clubs but the one with Subi is a strong one.

"I think it dates back really to the mid-90s when I was a player and I know there's been a few things between the two clubs along the way. I know the players look forward to playing against Subi and a lot of them are school friends so there's that little bit of friendly banter in there as well."

West Perth does have at least three changes to make from the team that beat East Perth on Sunday.

Aaron Black has received a one-week suspension so he is out of the line-up to take on the Lions with Steve Potente and Dean Munns joining him.

Brayden Antonio was outstanding in the reserves last week with 27 possessions and three goals to likely earn himself a call up while Ben King could come straight back in after being a late withdrawal against East Perth.

Alexander Coe, Conal Lynch, Mitch Peirce and Mitch van Berlo all performed well in the reserves against East Perth on Sunday to put themselves in contention to take on Subiaco this Saturday.

Adam Cockie has worked his way back to some form and fitness the past two weeks in the reserves for Subiaco to put himself back in the mix to take on West Perth on Saturday. Last Saturday against Perth he had 27 possessions, six inside 50s and a goal.

Brad Stevenson has also spent the first two weeks in the reserves and the versatile key position player is in the mix to take on West Perth.

Former Swan Districts player Dylan Nelson could make his Subiaco debut following four goals in the reserves last week with Braden Fimmano, Ben Sokol and Daniel Perkins also in the mix at the selection table.

James Garcia, Chris Bryan and Greg Clark are three players who will be out of the Subiaco side against West Perth on Saturday.

ROUND 3
WEST PERTH v SUBIACO – HBF ARENA, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Broadcast – HFM (107.3FM)

LEAGUE TEAMS, LIVE STATS 
RESERVES TEAMS, LIVE STATS 
COLTS TEAMS, LIVE STATS